The List
by Oujo ha Rippa
Summary: Whoever makes it onto Fuuta's 'love list' means they are destined to become a couple, but when Tsuna Sawada gets paired with his senior Giotto Vongola, he's determined to do everything he can to prove the list wrong. G27. One-sided K27. Hints of 0027.
1. Chapter 01: Everything in Tens

**So here it is! Chapter one edited and ****re-uploaded. It's longer, and different to how you may have first remembered it. If you're new to this story - welcome! You won't notice any changes, but I do hope you enjoy reading.**

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_Chapter 01: Everything in Tens_

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_The worst lies are the lies we tell ourselves_ –Richard Bach

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Ten reasons.

Ten _perfectly_ good reasons why Fuuta's list was completely and utterly _wrong_. There were ten_ utterly_ good reasons why Fuuta's list was ridiculous and should never have been completed or contemplated in the first place.

And do you know what Tsuna Sawada was going to do?

List every single reason. All ten of them.

Let's start with the basics – number one, Tsuna was not – and may I repeat for those who didn't quite clearly get that – _not_ in any way shape or form gay. Tsuna had never looked at a guy in that sort of way or vicinity before, he never planned to and he never wanted to. Sure, he looked like the stereotypical gay teenage boy due to his feminine features, wide eyes and inability to not stop blushing at anything and everything. However, that didn't change the fact that he wasn't interested in guys in the slightest. Nope, nada, zip, zilch, no interest at _all_.

In fact, if Tsuna was going to be brutally honest – not that the meek little brunette could be brutal literally – but if he was going to be metaphorically brutal here, he was utterly and completely head over heels for Kyoko Sasagawa. Head over heels didn't even begin to explain it; he was completely in love with her.

Oh, don't worry, he knew he never stood a chance with someone like Kyoko, but a guy could dream right? She was perfect – if Fuuta actually wasted his time on more important lists, like the one that was about whom the most gorgeous girls at Namimori High were, Kyoko would be at the top of that list. It's not like that was a secret to Tsuna, to Kyoko or to anyone, it was just the plain truth.

But now we're just digressing. Let's get back to the point here.

Specifically, point number two.

Actually, no, let's just highlight point number one for anyone who didn't get the clear message. Got to make sure we've covered every track, right?

Tsuna Sawada, sixteen year old sophomore, F grade student at Namimori High, blood type A, was not interested in guys. And for the last and final time now before we _do_ move onto point number two, he was not interested in eighteen year old Giotto Vongola – a (rather handsome looking) guy who was in his senior year. No, he was not attracted to this guy or any guys for that matter.

Is the message clear yet? Good. Moving along now.

(He still doesn't like guys.)

Onto the next point now – for real this time.

The next reason is an incredibly valid reason that Fuuta should take into serious consideration when he reads this carefully planned through list Tsuna was creating. This match was completely wrong. So wrong. Look, Giotto was off to college next year, and Tsuna was barely scraping it through his sophomore year without the teachers breathing down his neck about being held back a year. Or two.

The _point_ was that Giotto was a successful, intelligent and popular young (and very attractive) guy that was probably going to go overseas to some fancy University to get a degree in something or another whilst Tsuna was on the verge of being held back a grade with grade F papers flying at his face all the time. They were incredibly incompatible – they were polar opposites apart from one little thing.

They were both _guys_.

Okay, let's not get side tracked back to point one again. But that was probably the only similarity between them – they were both of the male genitalia and heck, even that was probably questionable in accordance to Tsuna.

Plus, there was no way a senior would be seen with a sophomore anyway right? I mean sure, Kyoko gets a lot of attention from upperclassman, but that was Kyoko. This was Tsuna we're on about and the only attention from someone older than him that he got was the kisses on his forehead from his mother in the mornings before school.

And like hell attention from a _guy_ was going to count as real attention.

Reason number three on his list – let's just say that somehow, for some reason, by some divine intervention, Tsuna and Giotto became a…thing. Let's just say for arguments sake, it happened (which it was never going to) and they went public about it – Giotto would be saying goodbye to all respect and popularity he ever had. I mean c'mon, who would want to be known as dame-Tsuna's boyfriend?

Who would be _known_ as Tsuna's boyfriend and not be ridiculed for it in the slightest?

Why was Tsuna even considering this possibility? It wasn't even a possibility.

It wasn't even something worth _considering_.

Just…considering the consideration of this possibility, Tsuna was certain of its uncertainty. That's all he had to say on that matter, especially when this wasn't even a possibility to even consider considering about in the first place.

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Let's just move on.

Another very valid reason why Fuuta's list was not only wrong, but _incredibly_ pointless, was that the very paper he was using came from trees. Now, Tsuna was no expert when it came to biology and how deforestation worked exactly, but it was common knowledge that trees gave us a lot of oxygen – wasting paper like this on stupid and pointless lists that served no purpose than to just tell us lies was not a way to use paper.

If Tsuna had to take a choice between these absolutely _wonderful_ lists that Fuuta makes that are so incredibly accurate (because Tsuna was totally going to get together with a guy. Reason number one people) and having oxygen so he could live, he'd take the oxygen.

C'mon, this was a completely valid point.

Given the choice, people would choose to live over seeing these silly lists being made for entertainment purposes, right? People couldn't seriously prefer these lists over the oxygen the tree it gave them came from.

If none of the other valid points – like you know, how Tsuna was not gay or anything convincing like that – was not enough to emphasize that this list business caused more harm than good, then maybe reason number five will change your mind.

Let's say that by some freak accident, someone on the list died. Okay so maybe death was a tad too extreme but just bear with this. If someone on that list died, and then someone found the list and saw the name of the person who died on it, people might start thinking this is a hit list of…some kind. Some sort of ruining relationships in any possible way hit list that resulted in the death of someone who was in a relationship with someone else. What would happen if people started to think that? Fuuta would be in serious trouble with the authorities and hell, Tsuna didn't want that to happen to his friend.

Even if said friend was the very same friend who decided it'd be a great laugh to put Tsuna's and Giotto's name down on the list together.

"_Trust me Tsuna! It's going to happen!"_

No. Not it was not. Nice try though Fuuta.

Also, this was a big waste of pencil led and pen ink. If Fuuta was going to sit around and waste all his writing equipment on writing lists, then that was his problem. He was the one that was going to get a detention for it when running out of ink in the middle of his homework – not Tsuna. Even though Tsuna would probably see him there anyway.

Actually, this was a rather valid point. Mark that as reason number six lists were pointless.

Let's move on.

Oh, did Tsuna forget to mention the fact that Giotto was straight? Because he was.

Just like Tsuna was _not_ gay.

Well…it wasn't like Tsuna had actually _heard_ Giotto say anything that would confirm that he is completely and utterly straight – but Tsuna just knew that someone like Giotto had to be straight. Now, Tsuna was no expert in this sort of field, but there were some things that clearly made the upperclassman into girls and not guys.

To start with, Giotto was one of the most popular guys at Namimori High, along with others, such as Reborn, Dino, Cozart, Colonnello and G (did anyone even _know_ what G's name was anyway?). None of them were into guys – they weren't the kind of guys that would be into guys. They were guys that had a lot of girls waiting in line to get a chance to just speak to them in hopes of dating them.

Speaking of dating girls – Giotto _had_ a girlfriend. At least, everyone said he did.

Some people would say she was an exotic beauty from Europe that Giotto flies out to Japan on occasion to spend time with her, which is why he spends a lot of time away from school.

Other people say she's actually a college student from a college in Namimori due to the fact Giotto had a 'mature air' about him. Thus, the conclusion was he would be better with an older girl to match his 'mental' age. Tsuna didn't get it, but it was something to bring up with Fuuta nonetheless.

So there, a completely valid point. Solid proof that Giotto was _not_ gay.

And on the subject of people not being gay – another point to address was the other people on Fuuta's list that Tsuna had seen.

Namely Yamamoto and Gokudera.

Really, out of _all_ the people Fuuta could've put down, he put Yamamoto and Gokudera together?

Tsuna was their best friend and had been for years! If they were gay and let alone _liked_ each other in that way, surely he would be the first one to notice? No, he wasn't exactly the best person at reading signals of any kind, but all Yamamoto and Gokudera did was argue.

Well, it was more Yamamoto laughing off Gokudera's violent verbal protests and insults and trying to keep the peace, but still! Even if Yamamoto liked Gokudera, Gokudera certainly had no interest in Yamamoto. Plus, Yamamoto was in the same boat as Giotto here! He was a really popular guy just like Giotto – the last Tsuna heard about Yamamoto's own personal 'harem' was yesterday when Yamamoto was telling him and Gokudera how a girl from the year above, Arisu, had confessed to him (and then how he politely declined, but that's not the point).

So who was to say Fuuta's love list was even valid? If people who were on the list weren't even together, then the list was a fake and Fuuta was lying about it all. Another valid point to tick off his list – Fuuta's list wasn't even accurate.

Plus, Giotto and Tsuna didn't know one another.

Did anything more really need to be _said _about that? Giotto probably had no idea that Tsuna even existed. How could they be destined to be together?

And if this list was _ever_ made public, so many people would pester Fuuta for their destined love – and if the list was just something Fuuta had been something made up just like his cosmic love powers, then how was he going to deliver results? Force people to get together? How would Fuuta explain that to everyone?

There – ten things.

He had managed to come up with ten _perfectly_ good reasons as to why he and Giotto should not be on that list _and_ why Fuuta's list shouldn't exist.

**Ten Perfectly Good Reasons Why the List Is Wrong by Tsuna Sawada**

_1) I'm not gay! I like girls! I like Sasagawa-san!_

_2) Vongola-san and I are complete opposites. How can we be destined for each other?_

_3) Why would Vongola-san want to date _me_ if we both liked guys anyway!?_

_4) This is a waste of oxygen Fuuta! The paper could be used for something else…_

_5) If someone on this list died people might think it's a list of people to kill!_

_6) And this is a waste of ink!_

_7) Vongola-san is straight! And I'm not gay!_

_8) Yamamoto and Gokudera are straight! How can the list be right if no one on it is together?_

_9) Vongola-san and I don't know each other…_

_10) If people found out about the list they'll want to know their destined love…and if this is a fake you won't be able to do that! You need to stop before it gets out of hand…_

You're probably wondering by now what on earth is going on.

Or better yet, if you've kind of got the gist, how it all started.

Well, it started out innocently enough. Back at the beginning of middle school, having just started from elementary, Tsuna befriended Fuuta. Since Tsuna wasn't in all of Yamamoto and Gokudera's classes and Fuuta was, Tsuna was happy to actually have someone who he could talk to when separated from his childhood friends. Especially when they weren't there to fend off any bullies or the like.

But enough digressing. Tsuna and Fuuta became quite good friends over a short space of time, and so, there came a point where Fuuta opened up about his 'secret powers' to Tsuna.

At first, Tsuna just nervously laughed it all off as a joke. Everyone in middle school made up some outrageous story that was too good to be true anyway that they'd look back on in a few years and laugh over. However, Fuuta took this to the extreme. He…well, unlike most middle school children, he never gave up on the story about his cosmic love powers to create a list of people destined to be together.

The result of Fuuta not letting this die? Tsuna currently huddling over his desk in class to make his own list. That's what it all came down.

He was _not_ going to let Fuuta carry this on any longer.

And he was going to make it clear he was _not_ gay.

Except there was one little detail Tsuna seemed to miss out. In fact, there wasn't just one detail – there were several. Ten in fact. Ten little details for each of his reasons that he seemed to leave out when making his list.

The first was Kyoko Sasagawa. Now, although not a predominant reason in any of the points Tsuna made, she _was_ his reasoning behind not being gay. Which, of course to any straight guy or lesbian girl, it was perfectly understandable _why_ she'd be a reason behind anyone's sexuality. Long, slender legs, a curvaceous body, but nothing that stood out too much and made her an overly sexualized item of desire. Her honey coloured eyes were captivating, and the way her hair shaped her face made it so each of her features were defined in their own unique way.

Needless to say, she was a definition of beauty that was hard to find in most schools today. A simple, but enchanting, innocent beauty – and Tsuna was not in the wrong for proclaiming affection towards her. The only thing was, the main reason Kyoko ever showed Tsuna any time of day, was because she was convinced he's gay.

Of course, Tsuna didn't know this (and if he did…well, let's not ponder on that) and believed that there was a microscopically small chance that maybe she returned his feelings. Not enough to convince him to confess to Kyoko, but enough to delude him to the fact Kyoko saw him as a flat out gay friend.

In fact, it was pretty much safe to say _a lot_ of people believed Tsuna was gay. Kyoko was just one of many of those people.

Which nicely leads us onto the next point on Tsuna's list; how you may be asking? Well, for the fact that Tsuna has obviously paid very close attention to Giotto Vongola.

It was hard to _not_ pay attention to the gorgeous school idol, but for Tsuna to be so sure that they were polar opposites? Unless he had evidence to back that up, he had obviously been paying a lot of attention to someone he 'doesn't talk to'. But we'll get back to that point in a little while.

Which makes Tsuna's third and seventh points just a subsection of point two – why?

Well, that's simple. Tsuna had to have observed Giotto to some length to think they had nothing in common – he would have also had to pay close attention to the rumours about Giotto's mysterious and apparent girlfriend. He barely remembered what homework he had to do for the following week until minutes before the lesson, which is what landed him with terribly bad grades; so he had to have been paying special and close attention to these rumours in order to remember them well.

He'd also have to have been paying very close attention to what it would be like to be with Giotto is he had thought up scenarios where both of them were 'gay' and dated each other. Isn't that something you do with people you're interested in, eh Tsuna? Like Kyoko?

Oh, and point nine is just a subsection of the subsections.

You're not very good at this list thing, are you Tsuna?

Speaking of pathetic points on his list – oxygen? Ink? Really? For someone who cares very little about completing their homework and passed a biology pop quiz with an F, they sure make really convincing arguments against why Fuuta's list was so bad. It was a wonder Tsuna even knew what deforestation was, let alone that trees actually gave us oxygen.

The only point that had some validity was the hyperbolic statement that if someone on the list died, or something bad happened to them, and then Fuuta's list was discovered people could think Fuuta and those associated with him were out to get these people for some unknown reason out of revenge.

Although a _valid_ point, it was a ridiculous point. No one on the list was just going to suddenly die. I mean, what were the chances of that even happening? Very, very slim. So although kudos to Tsuna for coming up with at least one point that held some validity, it was a very situational scenario.

Point eight was just a demonstration of how utterly clueless Tsuna was.

A blind person could tell that Yamamoto and Gokudera had a thing going on between them.

Of course, due to the nature of high school and the issues with same sex relationships, they _did_ keep it on the low which was their decision. However, they had been going steady since their last year in middle school – two weeks after Fuuta had put them down on his list.

Coincidence? Possibly, however the same thing had happened to many couples before Gokudera and Yamamoto, and some even more recently. The only problem was that Fuuta could have one couple that was not together down on his list at a time. This time – it was Giotto and Tsuna and they had been down on Fuuta's list for almost a month now. However, Tsuna was only told about it a few days ago.

Now Fuuta didn't usually tell those he put down on the list they were on there – let alone who they were destined to be with. He simply liked to let things be and influence from a distance. However, no progress between Tsuna and Giotto was being made, and that was worrying to him, especially when he had gotten 'the message' that they were the next to be bonded together.

And Tsuna was completely against this idea.

Which hindered Fuuta being able to continue bringing couples together – for it wasn't his place to cross people off of the list. It was their destiny, and he couldn't move onto another's destiny until this one had been fulfilled.

But back to the point at hand.

This also meant that point ten was completely invalid. If people started trying to pester Fuuta to put their names down onto the list, he would simply reject and explain that he couldn't.

No, he didn't want to upset people, but he could only influence one destiny at a time.

Plus, it wasn't up to him whose destiny ended up on his list next – he couldn't just put any names down on the list. Only the names that were meant to be together and end up together.

This, as a result, meant that save for one point, rendered Tsuna's list completely pointless, if you'll excuse the pun.

That wasn't going to stop him though – which leads us to today.

The month was April, it almost coming up to the beginning of May. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom, bringing colour and life to the city of Namimori and decorating the streets with the thousands of falling petals that were swept along the roads and pavements by the brisk, warm, spring winds.

It was too nice of a day to be cooped up inside a building for hours upon hours and sweating over the various amounts of work that would be thrown at the students today – however such was the life of a high school student. The warmth of the sun was just at the right temperature – not too hot like it soon would be, but not cold enough for students to not want to be outside enjoying the sun.

The morning was still looming over the heads of the students at Namimori High, the Thursday morning having not long just started.

Thursday wasn't such a bad day for the students – in fact in theory it was second best to Saturdays. On Sunday you had the dark cloud of returning to the classroom nagging at the back of your mind. Then came Monday, the start of a long week at school where everyone is still tired and wishing it was the weekend. Tuesday was just an aftermath of Monday, where you're still in the mind-set of wanting to go back to the weekend that has just passed. Wednesday was an indication that it was the middle of the school week, and Fridays were when everyone was losing concentration and ready for a break. Thursdays however, was the day when you were anticipating Friday and the weekend, but you hadn't lost all of the zeal and energy of that week.

So in all, Thursdays were a good day.

Except when you're Tsuna Sawada.

The bell indicating the end of the current lesson rang, and many of the students began to gather their things together to head to another class.

"Class dismissed – not you Sawada. Come here," the teacher called over the quiet rustle of students packing away their things.

Tsuna started in surprise, dropping his pencil onto the floor that he was using to write up his list. Many heads turned to look at Tsuna from across the classroom – and it may have just been Tsuna being paranoid, but he was also convinced he heard quiet whisperings from some of his classmates.

It wasn't anything new. After all, if there was something Tsuna was renowned for, it was his inability to do well in any school subject ever. He was in no club activities, never did his homework or attempted to do extra credit to improve his grades and that was no secret to anyone who was in his classes.

Infamous for falling asleep on his desk and having a teacher wake him up by hitting the desk to startle Tsuna, and notorious for always being late for many of his classes. Disreputable for being found in the back of the detention room for many of the after school detentions the teachers handed out – sometimes he was the only one found there – and many of those reasons had something to do with his punctuality or general school performance.

Such was the life of Tsuna Sawada. Such was the life of a teenage boy that was not a delinquent, not a troublemaker, but a failure.

Tsuna reached down and picked his pencil up off of the floor and covered the list with his books. There went his chance to walk with Fuuta to his next class and present to him his list. It'd have to wait until they met up for lunch – which meant he'd probably have to voice his reasoning's in front of some of their other friends such as Yamamoto and Gokudera. Which, it didn't _bother_ Tsuna, he just didn't want to embarrass Fuuta by letting Yamamoto and Gokudera know they were on the list.

Perhaps this _was_ the work of a _real_ higher force that was punishing him for not doing his homework for this class. That had to be the actual reason.

As many of the students began to file out of the classroom, Tsuna approached his teacher's desk, looking down at the floor as he did so. He was quite embarrassed to be called out in front of his peers like that, but this was something he had grown used to over his time spent in education. It was routine.

"Is there…ah, something wrong, Sensei…?" Tsuna stammered as he stood in front of his teacher's desk.

"I was about to ask you the same thing Sawada. We've not been back long for this school year, but you've consistently failed to do any homework given to you so far and your class participation and performance is questionable," his teacher began, sitting back in his seat.

"I…um…" What was he supposed to say to that? Admit that was the case? Make an empty promise to try harder?

"And to add to this," his teacher interrupted, sitting up straight once again, "After talking to your other teachers whose classes you're in – past and present – this seems to be the case for _all_ of your subjects. You are aware there has been talk of possibly holding you back a year Sawada, aren't you?"

"Y-yes Sensei—"

"So, what do you plan to do about this?" his teacher leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk and resting his chin on his hands. His dark eyes bore into Tsuna's as he watched him carefully, curious as to what his student's response would be.

"Well…I—I don't really, um, know…" Tsuna admitted, scratching the back of his head nervously.

Before either of them could say anything more to one another, the door to the classroom was pushed open. The loud creak caused both heads still in the classroom to turn as the figure that opened the door walked in.

_Now someone is just trying to play a trick on me…_Tsuna thought to himself as he mentally gawked at the intruder – none other than Giotto Vongola himself.

"Sensei, I'm sorry for disturbing, I—" Giotto began to speak before stopping himself, noticing Tsuna standing before the teacher, "…am I interrupting?"

Tsuna would be lying if he said that he wasn't a bit intimidated by Giotto's gaze. The older boy's cyan eyes captured Tsuna's immediately once they flickered over to look at him. The blue eyed and blonde haired beauty was a rare sight to see in the middle of Japan, which is what probably made Giotto so fascinating to many of the female students that attended Namimori High.

His voice was soft, but had a sharp edge of confidence to it. Almost a commanding and domineering undertone to it – so lax, yet so controlled.

…

Why was Tsuna paying attention to all of these things!?

"Not at all Giotto," The first name basis seemed to shock Tsuna at first, but decided not to question it. After all, it was no secret that Giotto was European, and although he did conform to many of the Japanese mannerisms, it was said he did insist some people spoke to him on a first name basis if they were comfortable with it.

"In fact," the teacher pressed on, turning around in his chair to face Giotto, "You couldn't have come at a better time. Would you mind doing…well, I'd say doing _me_ a favour but it's not something that is going to benefit me."

"Did you need me to run an errand for you Sensei?" Giotto asked smoothly, taking a few more steps into the room.

"Not so much an errand Giotto, more a favour. I understand the pressures of the final year of high school are on, but would you mind tutoring my student here?" the teachers gestured towards Tsuna.

…_tutor_!?

He was asking Giotto Vongola to tutor _him_? Okay, maybe Tsuna would benefit from tutoring, but from Giotto? After reading that god forsaken list, Tsuna didn't want to take any chances to be around Giotto. At all.

Even if it was going to put his grades at stake.

He was _not_ going to give fodder for Fuuta to feed off of.

"Tutor?" Giotto's charming, soft voice asked as his eyes once again averted towards where Tsuna was standing.

_Eh! He's looking at me—!_ Tsuna quickly looked away. He didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of someone like Giotto.

And no! That did _not_ mean he liked Giotto! It was just embarrassing enough to be made a fool of in front of his classmates. He didn't need to be made a fool of in front of one of the most respected students at Namimori High.

"Sawada has found himself in a rather sticky situation. If his grades do not improve, he may be held back a year – and I couldn't think of a better person to possibly help out than you, Giotto," the teacher replied.

"Ah, so it's that bad…" Giotto mused for a moment, finally looking away from Tsuna after noticing his embarrassment.

"I can understand if it's too much…"

Giotto shook his head, "It's not any trouble Sensei, if it means Sawada-san will be able to continue studying without being held back, I'll do my best to help out."

_Do I not get a say in any of this!?_ Tsuna thought to himself desperately.

"Wonderful!" their teacher exclaimed, clasping his hands together.

Oh he so had to be working for Fuuta. This _had_ to be a joke.

"What are your grades like, Sawada-san?" Giotto asked.

Okay now he was actually talking to him. What was he supposed to say!? He was surely going to make a fool of himself if he tried to start talking.

…why did he even care!?

Tsuna was definitely going to blame Fuuta for this later.

"I— um…" Great. Now he couldn't even form a coherent sentence.

"F grades, across the board. If you could help him work on his punctuality too, that would be great."

"…I see," Giotto said after a short pause, letting the seriousness of this situation sink in for him for a moment or two, "I'll do my best to help you, Sawada-san. Do you mind meeting me after school so I can go over a schedule with you?"

"I…I um…have a detention after school…" Tsuna barely managed to whisper out.

"Ah, that's not a problem. I can wait around and help with club activities whilst you serve your time," Giotto joked, smiling warmly towards Tsuna.

How could someone be this nice? Seriously?

"T-thank you Vongola-senpai…" Tsuna replied, placing an awkward smile on his lips.

"You should start gathering your things, Sawada, I'll write you a note so you don't get yet _another_ detention for your punctuality," the teacher said, taking a slip of paper out of his draw.

"Y-yes Sensei—" Tsuna said, hurrying over to his desk, beginning to gather his things.

What he didn't notice however, during his hurry to pack away and get out of the room in order to avoid any more further embarrassment, was that curious little slip of paper that he had spent so much time putting together points on slipping out of his file and onto the floor by his desk.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and bowed to his teacher and then to Giotto, not making eye contact with either of them before rushing out.

"Now, what is it you needed Giotto?" the teacher asked.

"Ah, I was just here to hand in my assignment, I finished it last night and wanted to give it to you now otherwise I would forget," Giotto admitted, taking his assignment out of his bag and placing it on his teacher's desk.

"Early as always," the teacher chuckled placing it into the draw in his desk, "Anything else I can do for you?"

"Nothi— ah, it looks like Sawada-san dropped something," Giotto said, walking over towards where the slip of paper was, picking it up and placing it in his bag without looking at it, "I'll return it to him later. Have a good day, Sensei."

"You too Giotto."

This couldn't end well.


	2. Chapter 02: Just Not Your Day

_Chapter 02: Just Not Your Day_

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_Do you have a Band-Aid? Because I just scraped my knee falling for you. _-Anonymous

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**Ten People Who Think Tsuna Sawada Is Gay**

_1) Kyoko Sasagawa_

_2) Fuuta_

_3) Nana Sawada_

_4) Enma Shimon_

_5) Takeshi Yamamoto_

_6) Hayato Gokudera_

_7) Haru Miura_

_8) His Homeroom Teacher_

_9) The Janitor_

_10) Giotto Vongola_

Oh no.

"It was in here!" Tsuna exclaimed loudly as he began to empty his bag out on the rooftop.

"Tsuna-kun…" Fuuta began calmly as he watched Tsuna worriedly begin to assault his school bag.

It _was_ in there. The list he had created it. He had put it inside his folder ready to take out when he met up with Fuuta. He remembered putting it inside his folder to hide it from any prying eyes that may have passed his desk when they were leaving the room. Tsuna had made absolutely _sure_ that the list was in his possession when he left the classroom.

Okay, so maybe he didn't double check it was still in his folder, he was too busy concentrating on trying to get out of the classroom. I mean, being confronted by a teacher was embarrassing enough, but for his teacher to bring Giotto into things? Nuh uh, Tsuna needed to get out of there. There was no way he could've stayed there a moment longer.

Yet here he was, sitting up on the rooftop with his friends, all of them having just settled down to start eating lunch – and now he was crashing their peaceful lunch time escapade with pages of incomplete homework and detention slips.

Oh, and his house keys were now in Yamamoto's bento.

And there went his juice into Enma's lap…

I don't think those sushi rolls are going to be very edible either anymore after his own bento just burst open and caused most of his lunch to roll out onto the floor.

"Aha! Tsuna, I think these are yours," Yamamoto grinned, handing Tsuna over his keys after wiping the stray rice off of them.

"Ah…um…thank you Yamamoto-kun…gomen…" Tsuna said, very obviously flustered by having (almost) ruined Yamamoto's lunch.

Sighing heavily, Tsuna slumped down onto his knees and hung his head. It was nowhere to be found. How could he have been so careless to lose something as important as this list? If anyone saw this list…what would they even think? He even put his name on the top of that list, so whoever would see it would_ know_ he made that list. How was he going to explain that to the entire school when they found out about his list?

What was he going to say to _Giotto_?

Why did he _care_ what he was going to say to Giotto!?

Well…he was going to be seeing him more often now that his teacher had arranged for Giotto to tutor him. And in all honesty? That meant they were going to be spending a _lot_ of time together if any improvements to Tsuna's grades were going to be made.

It was just his luck, wasn't it?

"It was here…" Tsuna quietly said again, looking down at the mess he had made around everyone.

"Relax Tsuna!" Yamamoto said cheerfully, resting a hand on Tsuna's shoulder, "It's no big deal~ why not just make another one?"

If only it was that simple.

Tsuna slowly shook his head. It wasn't that he _couldn't_ make another list and heck, it wasn't like he couldn't remember the points he put down on the list – he could. It was the fact he didn't know who had their hands on that list. Who knew who has already seen it and what sort of rumours were already being spread around!

"It's not that Yamamoto-kun…" Tsuna sighed as he bit down on his lower lip.

Why him? Why was it always him? Why did life want to punish him like this?

He could put up with the after school detentions. He could put up with having to do his best to hide his failing grades from his mother and the mockery he got from the other students because of it.

What he _couldn't_ put up with was someone getting their hands on the list and making rumours that he was gay.

Tsuna had enough bullying and teasing on his plate. It was a wonder that he even had friends who bothered with him with all the bullying that he got from other students. Especially Yamamoto, someone who was popular, athletic, participated in club activities…it was a wonder Yamamoto stuck by Tsuna.

But that was just the kind of person he was, when it came down to it. A warm, loving, and caring person – and Tsuna couldn't be happier to have a friend like that. A friend who ignore Tsuna's social rejection and still hung around with him despite all of the negativity thrown Tsuna's way.

For that, Tsuna was grateful.

"Why did you make a list, Tsuna-kun?" Fuuta asked with a small smile on his lips.

Did he seriously just ask that?

Did Fuuta still seriously not know?

"Well I…" Tsuna took a deep breath. Come on, he could do this, "I wanted to say why…why I shouldn't be on the list."

Fuuta stared at Tsuna for a few moments, not exactly sure how to reply to that. He was pretty sure Tsuna was on about his list – the love list – but why had he gone through all that trouble to make a list of reasons why he shouldn't be on it? It was something that greatly confused Fuuta.

"A list why you shouldn't be on my list? Tsuna-kun you're so silly~" Fuuta's smile widened, deciding to take this as just a joke.

_He thinks I'm joking…_Tsuna thought to himself, just simply staring at Fuuta in disbelief.

How could Fuuta not be taking this situation more seriously?

"I…I'm not joking…" Tsuna said, frowning somewhat at Fuuta, "I made a list…of ten reasons why I shouldn't be on it! And…and why you should stop trying to convince us the list is real…"

"Tsuna-kun the list is real," Fuuta's smile didn't fade an inch – instead his smile grew.

"How!?" Tsuna finally exclaimed, "I'm not gay!"

Everyone stopped to nervously glance at one another.

What were they supposed to say to that? Did they awkwardly laugh Tsuna's exclamation off and move swiftly onto another subject other than Tsuna's sexuality? Was it expected of one of them to bring up to Tsuna that they – and probably the entire population of Namimori High (heck, the entire population of Namimori for that matter) really did not believe that Tsuna Sawada was in fact straight?

A peculiar situation, but one that they needed to act fast on nonetheless.

"Well, Tsuna-kun…" Fuuta began.

And thus, silence followed once more

"Well what!?" Tsuna finally exclaimed desperately as he looked at all of his friends in turn.

Perhaps it was better to avoid this subject for the time being.

"…why don't you tell us what else was on the list, Tsuna-kun?" Enma said quietly with a nervous undertone. His red eyes briefly met with Tsuna's honey coloured ones before breaking the fleeting and subtle gaze.

"Ah, um well…Vongola-san is really popular and outgoing! And…well…I'm…me!" Tsuna proclaimed, shifting in his position on the floor.

Fuuta's smile grew as he clasped his hands together, "That doesn't mean you're not meant for one another – you're so silly Tsuna-kun."

"B-but we're nothing alike!" Tsuna said whilst folding his arms, "And why would he want to date me? I'm a guy!"

"Hey, haven't you said that already Tsuna?" Yamamoto said, picking up a fallen apple from Tsuna's bento and handing it back to him.

Tsuna let out an exasperated sigh.

None of them were getting it. Would it honestly matter if he went through each of his perfectly good reasons and explained them all to his friends? He doubted it very much. He was just going to be met with them telling him that each and every point he made in his _perfectly_ good list was wrong.

And they were going to give him an excuse for each and every one of them.

That was probably the best reasoning he had done for anything ever in his entire life.

"I'm sure your list was good, Tsuna-kun," Enma said softly, flashing Tsuna a meek smile.

Ah Enma, the voice of reassurance in Tsuna's pathetic hole of a life. Pathetic, as such, to spend his free time worrying about a scrap of paper with list on it; after all, who spends their lunch break worrying about some measly little list. Although, as Tsuna would like to keep pointing out, it was a darn good list at that.

In the faint distance, the warning bell for lunch rang, signifying there was only ten minutes until lunch period was over.

How utterly convenient.

Tsuna hadn't even touched his bento yet and now the warning bell was already going off? Just his typical luck. First, his homeroom teacher assigned Giotto to_ tutor_ him. Second, he lost his list and he had no idea _where_ the list went. And now, he wasn't even going to be able to eat the rest of his lunch and get to class on time.

Such was the typical luck of Tsuna Sawada. Today was just not his day.

Then again, no day was really Tsuna's day.

"Hey Tsuna, do you want to come over to my place after school?" Yamamoto asked as they began to pack away their things.

Oh, and he had a detention.

Thank you Yamamoto, for reminding Tsuna why it was he never got to hang out much with his friends after school. Because he was constantly in detention.

Again, may I emphasize this was _not_ Tsuna's day?

"Can't," Tsuna sighed, his shoulders slumping a little, "I have detention."

"Eh? Again?" Enma asked this time, a little surprised at Tsuna's shortcomings.

"I was late to class…and then failed the surprise test we had in that class," Tsuna mumbled, a little embarrassed to admit that to his friends.

Tsuna regularly frequented the detention room – and it was surprising because Tsuna was not your regular delinquent. Whilst everyone else in detention had gotten into trouble for purposely skipping school or smoking on the school grounds or something particularly more detention _worthy_ – Tsuna was the only one in there for basically being…well, a failure.

Like I said, it was embarrassing for Tsuna to have to skip out on hanging out with friends because he was a failure.

But alas, enough with the sombre tone.

"Um…would you like me to wait for you…?" Enma asked.

Tsuna shook his head, "No I…well…my homeroom teacher he's…asked one of the older students to tutor me…"

"Really? Who?" Yamamoto asked this time.

He should've just kept his big mouth shut.

Tsuna's eyes flickered over towards Fuuta. He could tell from the way Fuuta was watching him carefully – he had too know. Of _course_ he knew! He was Fuuta, he practically knew everything. This piece of information was only going to push Fuuta further into the right and Tsuna's godforsaken _PERFECT_ list into the wrong – despite how right his reasoning's were.

What was he meant to do though – lie? He'd be caught out eventually anyway so there was no point in lying about who was being forced to tutor him. It'd be better to just come clean about it.

"I— forgot his name…" Tsuna said whilst laughing nervously.

Yes, Tsuna.

That is _exactly_ what is meant by coming clean.

"…I can ask my brother Cozart about them if you want Tsuna-kun…so you don't…um…have some horrible tutor…" Enma suggested as he slowly stood up, pulling his bag onto his shoulder.

Tsuna shook his head as he placed his bento back into his bag. Maybe he'd get a chance to eat it later on the sly during detention. Or on the way h—

Oh no. He wasn't going home. He almost forgot.

Almost.

"I'll be fine Enma-kun," Tsuna smiled as he himself stood up, "But…thank you."

Enma nodded. There was a somewhat worried look in his eyes, but saying nothing further.

Tsuna appreciated Enma's concern. Both of them sort of…well, looked out for one another. As much as they could considering how they were both just as pathetic as one another. The main difference between them was that Enma managed his grades a _lot_ better than Tsuna did. Then again, Enma had Cozart constantly on his back to get the good grades Enma managed to get.

By no means was Tsuna jealous of that – in fact he was happy for Enma.

It was just a little disheartening to know even amongst the bullied of the school, he was the most pathetic one.

"Well…alright," Enma said.

And the group of four headed towards their lessons in idle silence. At one point, Yamamoto said his goodbye's and headed over to meet up with Gokudera, who had been in detention over lunch. Tsuna didn't really get why Yamamoto – out of all of them – was attentive as he was towards Gokudera. Gokudera always met Yamamoto's remarks with cruel words and harsh remarks.

Eventually, Tsuna parted ways with Enma and Fuuta, who headed into their classrooms, leaving Tsuna to head this class on the ground floor alone.

They had just been sitting on the roof.

And there were six floors. Save for the roof, which made it technically seven.

Tsuna was still currently on the fifth floor.

Today just really wasn't his day.

He did _try_ to pay attention during his last two classes of the day; however he found it increasingly difficult to do so with the thought in the back of his mind, someone had seen the list he made about him and Giotto Vongola being an 'item'.

Why did people even call couples an item anyway? What on earth did that even mean?

…

Why was Tsuna using the terms 'couple' and 'item' when talking about him and Giotto!? This was Fuuta's doing. He was getting inside his head and making him think these things; that had to be it. Tsuna barely said one coherent sentence to Giotto. _Barely_.

The point was someone out there had his list – and they could be doing god knows what with it. They could be at the photocopying machine right now photocopying enough copies to plaster around the entire school for everyone to see. Tsuna didn't know if he could handle that.

It was times like these Tsuna was thankful Hibari existed to maintain the peace at Namimori High. God knows what sort of things could happen with that list if Hibari wasn't around to prevent them from happening.

Not that it would be done for Tsuna's sake, of course.

Just the sake of Namimori High.

Even in comparison to a school Tsuna was inferior.

Detention eventually rolled around for Tsuna and despite his constant worries about where his list had ended up – there had been no signs of anyone making thousands of copies or using it to exploit him.

Granted, every time he saw someone look at him he was certain they were the ones who had the list and were thinking of ways on how to exploit him with it.

It was probably just better he headed to detention and tried to push it to the back of his mind.

"Hey! Sawada!"

Or maybe not.

Tsuna stopped mid-walk on his way to the detention room and spun around. Behind him was a rather energetic looking redhead jogging towards him down the hall. On his way towards him, he managed to almost knock an unsuspecting freshman over – and quickly apologized – before continuing towards Tsuna.

As his jog came to a halt, Tsuna immediately pinpointed who this was.

Cozart Shimon – Enma's older brother. Tsuna had seen him walking around Enma's house a couple of times when he'd been around in the past, but had never really talked to him.

And we're not going to go into the details about the first time Tsuna ever went to Enma's house and he walked into Cozart's bedroom by accident instead of Enma's.

Tsuna was pretty sure not even Enma knew about that ordeal.

And Tsuna was also pretty sure Cozart also never wanted to think back on that incident. Ever.

"U-um, hey," Tsuna said, giving Cozart a meek smile.

"Yo~ Giotto asked me to come look for you," God even the name was beginning to make him inwardly cringe, "He wanted me to tell you not to worry about going to detention. He talked you out of it."

Students can talk themselves and others out of detention?

Maybe today wasn't such a bad day after all.

"Oh…well…can you tell him thank you?" Tsuna asked.

"No need! He did it so he can start tutoring you. Explained to the teacher and everything spending an hour in there is going to be pretty pointless when you could be getting tutored or something. I stopped paying attention halfway through the conversation," Cozart explained, placing a hand on the back of Tsuna's shoulder and gently pushing him along in the direction he came from.

No. Tsuna was not mentally or emotionally ready for this.

He _needed_ that extra hour to mentally and emotionally prepare for his tutoring session with Giotto. He didn't ask for it to happen like this.

"We're…um, going there right now…?" Tsuna asked. He wanted to make sure he didn't have the wrong idea.

"Yeah, I mean, that's why Giotto did it anyway. I didn't realize you needed a tutor! What are you failing in?" Cozart asked curiously, looking down at Tsuna with big, warm, red eyes.

Everything.

"Erm, just a couple of things…"

Yeah, because that's everything.

"Well, whatever it is, Giotto's probably the best person to go to. He's the smartest guy I know," Cozart laughed as he grinned to himself, "Oh, but don't tell him I told you that. Friendly competition and everything, you know?"

"I think so…?" Tsuna had no clue what Cozart was going on about.

"Thanks," Cozart said, nodding down at Tsuna.

Whilst both Cozart and Tsuna made their way towards the classroom Giotto was currently waiting in – Giotto himself found himself in a bit of a pickle – much like Tsuna was in.

And it was over the piece of paper Tsuna happened to conveniently drop earlier on his way out of the classroom.

The other students in the classroom were idly setting up the room for their club activities. Giotto wasn't entirely sure what club this was (and right now did not care), he'd only been asked on behalf of the student council to supervise the club whilst the president was away for an operation and out of school for a couple of weeks.

Trivial really, but he had other matters on his mind.

Curiosity had gotten the better of him. Maybe it was wrong of him to pry into another student's work, but when he noticed what he could only make out to be his surname on the slip of paper – Giotto's curiosity had been hooked. And his curiosity would not be satisfied until he figured out what his name was doing on a piece of paper owned by a boy he barely even knew.

The results were startling.

The list was…well, it was nowhere near a list of serious calibre, by any means. Tsuna repeated a lot of the same points, and some of the points he had made…well. They weren't _that_ much of a point. Just an excuse really. Some words to add to a total number of points he'd have in the end.

Giotto sighed to himself. It pained him to know that people still didn't understand it wasn't the quantity of reasons that mattered, but the quality. One reasonably good, outstanding point could easily floor ten weak and pointless arguments.

The humanity of it all.

Really, what were they teaching today's youth?

Academically it did demonstrate Tsuna was in dire need of some help. Quite a lot of it in fact. And if Tsuna had any thoughts of joining the debate team – Giotto would politely tell him to reconsider that notion.

He didn't want the poor boy to go and embarrass himself now.

But on the flip side, something about the contents of this list did not sit well with Giotto. Why was Tsuna making this list? Did the boy have a crush on him?

It wouldn't surprise Giotto if he did. Many people – girls and guys alike – had come and confessed their undying love and attraction towards him. Giotto knew he was attractive, and he didn't mind that others appreciated that he was easy on the eye either.

Wow, what a way to make himself sound like an egotistical twat.

But that couldn't be the case – as Tsuna was so adamant in his list he was _not_ gay.

Giotto was surprised to see that. He was pretty sure upon meeting the brunette earlier today he did bat for the other team – but he just guessed people came out of the closet in their own time.

That was another thing; he had never spoken to Tsuna before. To his memory, he'd never met the kid before today. Yet, this Tsuna kid had all these assumptions on what Giotto was like and even down to his sexual orientation and was clearly aware of who he was.

Yet these assumptions were wrong. At least the one about his sexuality. Partially.

He wasn't gay, and he wasn't straight either. Easy come, easy go after all.

Giotto liked to think about it as having an open mind.

None of it added up in the end though. He was left with a poorly put together list that lacked in quality, written about a 'straight' boy who was trying to argue why they were never going to date.

The biggest question Giotto had though – what was this 'list' Tsuna had referred to in the title of his…well. It'd be an insult to lists to call it a list, but Giotto really couldn't muster up a better name for it off the top of his head.

Did he confront the boy about it when Cozart brought him along to the classroom?

No, that probably wasn't a good idea. Tsuna could barely get a sentence out when talking to him.

So what was he to do?

Maybe he could talk to Cozart about it, and see what he made of it. After all, Cozart was no stranger to receiving strange notions of confessions. Just last week, a girl that had a crush on him wrote a love message on his bedroom window.

Then again, Cozart just laughed it off, scrubbed off the message, and bluntly rejected the girl.

Yeah. Asking Cozart was not the way to go with this.

Should he return the list to Tsuna? He had probably noticed it was missing by now. He probably wanted it back.

Hm, it was an odd situation indeed.

"Hey! We're here!" Cozart's voice called from across the room, causing Giotto's gaze to break away from the slip of paper and look up at both Cozart and then Tsuna.

Giotto quickly folded the slip of paper and put it in his back pocket, smiling at his friend and Tsuna, waiting for them to come over.

He'd give it back to Tsuna when he figured out how he was going to approach this. It was decided.

* * *

**Well I did it! Got chapter two done and finished. If you'd all be darlings – I'd appreciate it if you all went and checked out my new story 'Promise Me'. Has two chapter already! And third chapter is already half written.**

**Until next time my sweets!**


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